Mental Health Days

As every year, this time at the end of November, students and teachers devoted their time to reflecting on mental health and practicing achieving mental and physical well-being.  Forty-six events took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, of which a record number of forty were conducted by teachers from 2SLO. Students prepared sauerkraut and beetroots in jars, pasteurized pumpkin, cranberries and peppers, made labels for marking jars, crocheted, sewed, painted plastic figurines, relaxed in the scriptorium in the palace in Wilanów, created animations, luxograms and traditional lanterns for the Hindu festival of light – Diwali, symbolizing the victory of truth over falsehood, light over darkness, life over death and good over evil. In addition, students practiced yoga, Taiji, mental body (a combination of aerobic exercises, yoga and pilates), played disc golf, ran, danced batucado (Brazilian street samba), played diatonic marimbas, learned the traditional Chinese tea ceremony, played social and war games, and walked around the picturesque Wawerski Bend, the Raszyńskie Ponds in Falenty, Łazienki Królewskie park, the magical sculpture garden of Juan Sorano in Podkowa Leśna, and virtually the modern district of Milan with the huge Milano Centrale station and the forested skyscrapers of Bosco Verticale.

Some of them participated in workshops about coping with sadness, about future life choices in harmony with oneself, about sleep, about Stoic methods of dealing with the complexity of one’s own nature, about the beneficial influence of literature, and about developing and building the ability to have a positive attitude towards oneself and the world.

Some students met with last year students and school graduates to learn their perspective on their choices, and others learned about research results on the impact of social media on users’ mental health and ways of coping with mass access to screens. It was also possible to take a rational look at climate changes on Earth and their impact on its environment. Everyone was fully engaged in their chosen activities and recharged their batteries for further work.

(text: Beata Ciacek; photos: Beata Borkowicz, Beata Ciacek, Ola Grudzińska, Marta Wierzbicka-Kotte, Tomasz Jarnicki, Paul Skrzyński, Kinga Grzechulska)